No Longer
by Niagra Falling
Summary: Is it that even after two children I'm still too childish for you? DN angst and endings. Chapter 3 added, rating upped to PG13. COMPLETE
1. Broken

**Disclaimer: I don't own it, Tamora Pierce does. Now you can't sue.**

**This is a holiday present for Gem, whom I think is Merrybeans on here (Maybe wrong about that). Hope everything works out for you.**

** Daine/Numair angst, a reaction to all the fluff out there. Set about six months after Trixkster's Queen.  
**

His voice broke. "Daine-"

"No," she said sharply, hugging little Rikash to her. "Nothing you say will change my mind, Numair. I'm leaving, and that's that."

"Magelet," he said. "Please, just listen to me."

"No. I know what I saw. And I thought that you of all people would have honor. I'm not putting up with this, being the- the wife on the side."

"Daine, won't you listen? I was _drunk_-"

She laughed, hotly and angrily. "I thought that you don't drink large amounts because it plays havoc with your Gift. And you would have to be plenty drunk to be _that_ out of your senses."

Sarralyn was sobbing into her mother's leg, scared by the tones of the voices her parents were using.

"Is that it?" Daine asked scathingly. "Even after we've had two children you still found me too _childish _for you? Is that why I found you in bed with- with _her_?"

"Sweet, Varice is just a friend! She's just visiting Tortall, since Kalasin gave her some time off working all the time!"

"Visiting Tortall and sleeping with you, it would appear."

Rikash looked on from her arms, his eyes wide. She wondered if her baby understood the hateful words she was throwing at his da.

"What of Sarra and Rikash? They'll grow up without a father."

"Well, better no father than one who practices-"

"Practices what?" he asked quietly, dreading the word that he knew would come next.

"_Adultery­_," she spat. His face darkened, but he knew that it was completely, irrevocably true. Daine turned to leave.

"What about your things?" Asked Numair, still hoping that she would just sit down and consider staying, realize that she loved him even though he _had _done what she had accused him of, which was having sex with Varice.

"I'll get them- and the children's- later. When you're gone." She said, over her shoulder. "Don't try to contact me. I can't be that forgiving, Numair. If we have to work together from now on, I'm merely someone you know because we both work for the Crown. I'm not your wife, your lover, _or _the mother of your children anymore."

And so she left.

Numair sat down on their- now his bed and wept.

One corridor away, Daine sat down with Rikash and Sarralyn next to her and cried too. But hers were not tears of sorrow for the husband she had just lost. Her tears were of rage. After a few minutes, she collected herself and stood up. She had money. She could buy a place in Corus, or at the very least request for Jonathan or Thayet to give her rooms on the other side of the palace.

"Mama?" Sarra said to her. "Mama, what happened?"

"Da isn't your Da now, Sarra." She told her two year old daughter. "You know how your last name was Salmalin? Well, how do you like being called Sarralyn Sarrasri now?"

Sarralyn's brow puckered. "That's two Sarras in my name, Mama. I like it."

Daine felt an overwhelming rush of love for her daughter. "Good."

They left.

**You read, please now review.**


	2. Desperate

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters: not Daine, not Numair, not Varice or Sarralyn or Rikash. Although I wish I owned Evin….. (you won't get this joke)

**I know that I said that this present for em was going to be a one shot, but I couldn't resist….. so now it will probably have 3 to 5 chapters at the most. Since several people on here and at the Dancing Dove forum (and Gemmy, whom this originally was written for, on LJ) asked me to continue, I did. Expect more later, either on Friday or after the holidays.**

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He had tried everything, to no avail. She would have nothing to do with him. First he had sent chocolates and a love poem, leaving them outside the door of her new rooms, on which the nameplate said Veralidaine Sarrasri. He was hurt by that. But he still left the chocolates, expensive ones imported from Carthak outside her door, along with a love poem. At the bottom he had written _please come back_.

Numair had woken up the next morning and found the word NO written out in the expensive imported chocolates outside his door. For a further touch, each chocolate had been stomped upon.

He tried again. Hothouse flowers, since it was the middle of winter, placed outside her new door. He found the stems of the flowers dropped onto the floor outside his door. He remembered what his mother had told him when he was little- _If at first you don't succeed, try, try again_. And he would keep on trying until Daine let him come back to her.

Even more love poems, bordering on the ridiculous. More chocolates, more flowers. Jewelry. All but the jewelry he found outside his door, defaced in some way the next morning. He later found out that she gave the jewelry away for Midwinter gifts to people she didn't like was felt required to give something to- that was how much she valued it.

And, to make matters worse, Varice was still in Tortall on her so-called vacation. Mercifully, she had kept away from him since they had slept together, but she was there and it was making matters worse.

What else was there that he could do? When he finally received a note from Daine, he was the happiest he had been since Rikash was born. But it was short and not at all loving.

Master Salmalin- 

_The servants have informed me that they are tired of having to clean up various sundry defaced items outside your rooms each day. On their behalf and on mine, I am requesting that you please stop sending me things. I do not appreciate it, and I am not going to rekindle our relationship because of these gifts that you give me. If you keep it up, I will go to the temple of the Goddess and report you for harassment._

_Cordially,_

_Verailidaine Sarrasri, Wildmage _

Daine was pleased to note that after her message to Numair, the "gifts" stopped. It saved her the trouble of getting up each morning to go over to his rooms and place the despoiled gift of the night before, which was quite nice. She could spend quality time with her children. Rikash was still a baby, and Sarralyn was a toddler and inquisitive to the point of Daine's exhaustion.

She went looking with Alanna for a place in Corus, and found a house for rent with three bedrooms, one of which would remain empty for now while she could still put Sarralyn and Rikash in the same room. There was a nice large piece of land out in the back with a few trees, and the house was airy. She liked it a lot.

Kitten approved, also.

When they had all moved in and set up furniture and things like that, Daine went to a magistrate to change Sarralyn and Rikash's last names from Salmalin to Dainesri. Sarralyn had been rather disappointed at the fact that her name wouldn't have two Sarra's in it after all, but as her mother had explained, Dainesri meant daughter of Daine, and Sarrasri meant daughter of Sarra. And Sara Beneksra was Sarralyn's grandmother.

Sarralyn got it.

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She hadn't known that Numair was married at all, or she wouldn't have slept with him. She was more honorable than that, and so was he. But he wasn't drunk, he couldn't because of his Gift….. and it was consensual.

She needed to apologize to Daine. She had heard that they broke up over her, and she felt bad about that. Varice knew what the Wildmage would think: she was an ice bitch who had stolen her husband away from her. She didn't know if it was Daine who had left Numair or the other way around, but she suspected that it was the former. She had heard stories of all the things that were left outside Numair's door in the morning, and how the _Veralidaine Sarrasri-Salmalin _on the door and been viciously scratched out several times.

Varice Kingsford felt horrible. She would apologize to Daine tomorrow.

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Oops. I just realized that I'm setting myself up here for a third chapter. Not intended, but oh well…..

**Read, review! Tell me your thoughts!.**


	3. Whole

**This is the third and last chapter of No Longer. This fic started out as a holiday present for Gem and, well, evolved. Thank you everyone for reading it and reviewing it. I hope that you like this last chapter. Thanks.**

** Diclaimer: I don't own Daine, Numair, Varice, Sarralyn, Rikash... you get the idea. Tamora Pierce owns them, and lucky her.   
**

The blonde woman looked up at the tidy, neat house in front of her. Two stories, made out of stone and wood, and a garden in the front. A few stray cats were lying around, but that actually only added to the charm of the Wildmage's house.

It had taken her roughly forty five minutes to get from the palace to the house in Corus. She had walked, for exercise and to keep her figure after all the feasts, and now here she was, standing in front of the house of someone who probably _wouldn't _want to lay eyes on her right now.

Just like she had been doing for the last, oh, hour or so.

"Just go in. What's the worst that can happen?" Varice told herself

She knocked.

"Varice Kingsford." Said Daine the Wildmage coolly when she answered the door. "What brings you here?"

"I- I, well, wanted to apologize."

"Oh?" It was amazing how the other woman could pack so much meaning into that one little word. There was surprise, suspicion, and more.

"I suppose you can come in." She opened the door wider, and let Varice into the house. They walked to the sitting room, which had a few comfortable looking chairs and a fireplace. Daine sat in one of the chairs and motioned to the other to sit down.

"What do you want to say to me Varice?" she regarded Varice coldly,

"I came here to apologize to you. I never meant to…"

"Destroy my marriage?" Varice flinched. "I didn't know!"

"You _didn't know_?" Daine's voice was even colder.

"There isn't exactly news of Tortallan mages weddings in Carthak, especially if they're low key and a few weeks before a child is born."

"But did you know we were together?"

"I had… guessed, after Ozorne and the delegation and all."

"Then why did you do it?"

"I don't know. I suppose that maybe I still have… some sort of attraction to him after all these years."

"Oh, really." Daine crossed her arms, and stared. He blue gray eyes were piercing, and her entire demeanor was frigid.

"Look. I came here to apologize. I'm going back to Carthak in a week, and in the week I have left I'm _not _going to initiate anything with Numair."

"Oh." Daine slumped. "He said that he was drunk, was he?"

Varice shrugged. "Not really, I don't think. He'd has a few glasses but Numair can't drink too much because of the power of his Gift, right?"

She looked at how dejected the older girl looked after she said that. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to imply…"

"No, it's alright. It's fine. I just was being stupid, that's all."

"You thought that maybe if he was drunk that you could still accept him because it was a mistake?" Varice asked her.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. I'll go now."

Daine sighed. "That's fine. Thank you for coming and apologizing."

"You're welcome."

She let herself out.

Daine sighed. "Sarralyn? Where are you?"

"Mama!"

She found her daughter under the table in the dining room, playing with a rag doll someone had gotten her for her first birthday. Daine picked up Sarralyn and gave her a hug.

Because right then, she had all that she really needed.

**I hope that everyone liked the ending. Again, thank you so much for reading. Please drop me a review! And any questions, email me. Email's in profile.**


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